Assault Case Against Pomersbach Dropped

[katharnak]

Zohal Hameed has decided to withdraw a molestation case against Australian cricketer Luke Pomersbach after an out-of-court settlement was reached, a report said.

The 27-year-old batsman, who plays in the Indian Premier league for the Royal Challengers Bangalore team, was last week granted bail by a New Delhi court following accusations that he molested the woman and beat up her fiance.

The cricketer, who has played one Twenty20 international for Australia, denied the charges against him but faced a jail sentence if found guilty.

But a Press Trust of India report said the woman's lawyers would seek withdrawal of the case at the Delhi High Court.

"Yes," Rajneesh Chopra, the woman's lawyer, said in a text message when asked whether she was withdrawing the case against Pomersbach, according to the PTI.

Pomersbach's arrest was headline news in Indian and Australian newspapers on Saturday with reports detailing the sensational allegations in the case and the chequered history of the money-spinning IPL.

Pomersbach has battled depression and drug problems and narrowly avoided a jail sentence in Australia after admitting assaulting a police officer who was trying to arrest him for drink driving.

The alleged female victim, a 27-year-old from the United States, earlier told Indian media that Pomersbach had "tagged along" with her and her Mumbai-based fiance and said that the cricketer grabbed her while they drank together in a hotel room in New Delhi.

When her fiance asked Pomersbach to leave her alone, Pomersbach "turned around and started hitting him", she alleged.